PAF Academy

The PAF Academy Risalpur has been renamed PAF Academy Asghar Khan, which sounds a little strange. Military academies all over the world carry the name of the place where they are located, such as PMA Kakul, RMA Sandhurst, USMA Westpoint, USNA Annapolis, IMA Deradoon, RAF College Cranwell, PNA National Defence University Beijing, General Staff Academy, Moscow etc.

PAF Risalpur was a school to start with, then it became a college, then a university and now an academy. Strangely it has been christened Asghar Khan Academy now. Asghar Khan is no doubt a giant of a name in PAF history and must be honoured and commemorated but tagging this great name at the tail of the PAF Academy, somehow doesn’t seem to be in good taste. Graduates from military academies all over the world introduce themselves as having graduated from Kakul, Sandhurst, Westpoint etc. What would a graduate of the PAF Academy say? In my considered opinion, the PAF Academy should stay as the PAF Academy, Risalpur and some important block in the PAF Academy be named after him. Alternately, ‘the Asghar Khan PAF Academy, Risalpur’ would again be wrong because it is a national academy.

Col (r) Syed Riaz Jafri

Rawalpindi